1. The shopping neighbourhood - Tomigaya, TokyoIt’s just blocks from frenzied Shibuya but Tomigaya is organic, authentic and now – with an inﬂux of artisans – cool. The dress code matches tattoos with a Mittan hemp coat from craft selector Archivando (0081-3-5738 7253, archivando.jp) and Wakouwa gym shoes from Anatomica (0081-3-5823 6186, anatomica.jp), with house-plants from ﬂorist-café-clothing store Pivoine (0081-3-3465 1193, pivoine-jp.com) as accessories. Base camp for the new faces is Oslo-import Fuglen (0081-3-3481 0884, fuglen.no) – a coffee shop by day, cocktail bar by night. A few doors away, Fuglen curator Wakiko Fukuda sells Nordic houseware at Norwegian Icons (norwegianicons.no). Old-time locals now share their area with artisan cheesemakers like Shibuya Cheese Stand (0081-3-6407 9806, cheese-stand.com) that turns out mozzarella and ricotta daily; bean-to-bar chocolatiers like Minimal (0081-3-6322 9998, mini-mal.tokyo) whose creations have labels telling origin, harvest and roast date; and sandwich-savant Hayato Naruse, who smokes lamb and rolls tamagoyaki in Camelback (0081-3-6407 0069, camelback.tokyo), the takeaway he runs with barista Keitaro Suzuki. There’s another pocket-sized coffee stop called Little Nap Coffee Stand (0081-3-3466 0074, littlenap.jp). The Europeans may have given Tomigaya a boost, but siblings Teruhiko and Wakako Saito made it a destination. Their natural-grape bistro Ahiru Store (0081-3-5454 2146) was a decade ahead of the pack and is still the hardest place to get a seat. Its gastro-rival is Path (0081-3-6407 0011), an all-day eatery where brunch means ﬂuffy Dutch pancakes topped with prosciutto and a big blob of burrata.

3. The art neighbourhood - Schöneberg, BerlinIn the streets around Potsdamer Strasse, red-light destinations have made way for avant-garde galleries. Here, the northern fringes of Berlin’s Schöneberg are emerging as the most exciting contemporary-arts hub in a city synonymous with creativity. It’s not just curators who are taking advantage of the cheap rent. Artistic synergies have inspired a wave of boutiques that could be mistaken for exhibition spaces. Case in point: Andreas Murkudis (0049-30-68079 8306, andreasmurkudis.com), a hyper-curated concept store in a former printing warehouse. In April, art dealer Esther Schipper (0049-30-37443 3133, estherschipper.com) transformed a concrete space into an airy gallery, with video and light installations bathed by skylights. Next door, London gallerist Blain|Southern’s (0049-30-64493 1510, blainsouthern.com) mind-bending art lures a mix of coders, former ravers and collectors. And blocks away, the ﬁnishing tags were being sprayed on Urban Nation (0049-30-3229 5989, urban-nation.com), which showcased an explosion of graffiti artists when it opened last September. Bringing it all into focus is Brillenschatz (0049-30-6165 3702, brillenschatz.de), Abdullah Demir’s eyeglass emporium which houses thousands of vintage shades. Meanwhile Schöneberg’s buzziest new restaurant, Panama (0049-30-98320 8435, oh-panama.com), dishes up seasonal plates surrounded by – what else? – contemporary art.

4. The tech neighbourhood - Tendernob, San FranciscoThe Tenderloin has traditionally been the part of town your friends warn you about. The name comes from the days when policemen were paid more to work its streets, thereby affording them better cuts of meat. Wander a few blocks north and you’re in disputed land between seedy downtown San Fran and bourgeois Nob Hill. Some say Upper Tenderloin, others insist Lower Nob Hill; the compromise is the rather unfortunately named Tendernob. The area’s still got grit, but dense Twenties architecture swings between vaguely Parisian and ﬂamboyantly Ottoman. The city’s last gasp of semi-affordable rents, it’s where off-the-boat techies are coding their ﬁrst start-ups. To coax these wannabe Mark Zuckerbergs out of their hoodies, former US Vogue fashion news editor Emily Holt’s concept store, Hero Shop (001-415-829 3129, heroshopsf.com), ﬁlls the rails with a clever mix of labels (Rosetta Getty, J. Crew, Creatures of the Wind). Along the street is Jay Jeffers (001-415-440 7300, jayjeffers-thestore.com), which accessorises apartments with vintage-inspired furniture and Martone Cycling Co. bikes. And around the corner, Mr Holmes Bakehouse’s (001-415-829 7700, mrholmesbakehouse.com) croissants and cakes have proved such instant (and Insta) hits, they’re usually sold out by 2pm. Follow Hawaiian-Cali fusion at Liholiho Yacht Club (001-415-440 5446, liholihoyachtclub.com) with tropical sips and coffee-milk-caramel waffles at Louie’s Gen-Gen Room (001-415-440 5446, liholihoyachtclub.com/gengen). Bar-crawl Geary Street for more down-to-earth cool: keep out an eye for Rye (001-415-786 7803, ryesf.com) behind the sliding door; at Rum & Sugar (001-415-913 7949), staff behind the copper bar wear “Tenderloin & Proud” tees. You might just catch owners Natasha and Olga playing a jazz set. And with Reddit now in the neighbourhood, across from the new Tilden Hotel (doubles from AED 770; 001-415-673 2332), it can only grow as the digi-developer’s top spot for keeping it real.

5. The after-dark neighbourhood - La Juarez, Mexico CityGentrifying districts have a diffusion effect, proliferating ﬂat whites and ﬁxed-gear bikes from up-and-came quarters into their once-sketchy or sleepy neighbours. A short wander from perennially hip La Condesa and La Roma, La Juaréz is the latest enclave where an eclectic array of artists, musicians, architects and entrepreneurs now live. Rewind to the turn of the 20th century and La Juaréz was home to the city’s wealthy, who built French-inspired mansions along stately avenues. Many were abandoned after the revolution, more destroyed in the 1985 earthquake, but now these grand old buildings have been reimagined as art galleries like Marso (0052-55-6276 2275, marso.com.mx) and Galeria Karen Huber (0052-55-5086 6210, karen-huber.com) or hotspot restaurants like the Havre 77 (0052-55-5208 1070) and tiny Sushi Kyo (0052-55-5511 8027, edokobayashi.com/sushikyo.html) for omakase sushi. Between them are two of the city’s best cafés, Farmacia Internacional (0052-55-5086 6220, facebook.com/internacional.farmacia) and Rompeolas (facebook.com/rompeolascafe), and craft hops and bikes at the DFCC (0052-55-5511 7817, dfcc.mx); plus a literary crowd, bands and cocktails at Bukowski’s (0052-55-5208 2327, pendulo.com), and Japanese fashion and workshops at bar/boutique Loose Blues (0052-55-5546 4359). But it’s once the sun sets that La Juaréz really comes into its own. Sip an old fashioned at Cicatriz Café (cicatrizcafe.com), then feast on beef tartare at Amaya (0052-55-5592 5571, amayamexico.com). Some of Mexico’s best mixologists make killer negronis at speakeasy Hanky Panky (0052-55-9155 0958) or Taberna Luciferina (0052-55-5535 4424, tabernaluciferina.com); there’s live jazz and blues at Parker & Lenox (0052-55-5546 6979, facebook.com/parkerandlenox) or DJs and botanical cocktails at Xaman (0052-55-4771 3837, xamanbar.com). Bright young things then head to mansion-nightspot Americana Club Social (0052-55-5566 3833, americanasocial.club) to dance until dawn.